Gridcoin is a decentralized crypto currency which rewards BOINC computations. It aims to be energy efficient while simultaneously providing concrete benefits to scientific research, such as weather observations, curing diseases and assisting in astrophysical discoveries.

No more Qt4

With Gridcoin v3.7.0.0 we changed the way we build Windows releases and were finally able to drop Qt4 support. Seeing as Qt4 got its support yanked by Nokia in 2015 it was about time that we made the final switch on Windows as well.

I am an avid advocate for code removal, especially when that code is obsolete. It increases readability and makes the overall code easier to understand, and locating specific pieces becomes less of an issue. With the Qt4 requirement out of the Window we could start axing some of the legacy compatibility quirks scattered throughout the UI tree. Some calls could be removed completely while others could be moved the the UI definition files. It may not look like much but it has been a long standing annoyance. Each preprocessor condition removed is a kitten not slain.

Going down the good hill

If we have a look at the trend in the Gridcoin source tree we can see that we are continuing our quest for code removal and the codebase keeps getting smaller and smaller.

• Master branch: 75100
• Staging branch: 74369
• Development branch: 73475

Each release takes us one step closer to cleanliness. Small steps perhaps, but small steps in the right direction nonetheless. When v3.7.0.0 is released and block version 9 kicks in we can start cleaning out the old block version 8 rules which will take the lines down even further. Expect v3.7.1.0 to be even slimmer.